The reasoning is defensible. However, after watching the video a number of times, Brady clearly was prepping to run a play out of the shotgun. Instead of running under center to spike the ball, Brady tried to guide confused teammates -- who seemed to expect a timeout -- before frantically stopping the clock with four seconds left, leading to a field goal and a 13-7 halftime lead.

"No (there was no thought put into calling an immediate timeout), not really," Belichick said. "I guess if we had known that it would take as long as it did to get the ball finally clocked (we would have called a timeout), but then we didn't get a great look on the play."